Singapore-headquartered telehealth startup Doctor Anywhere and ViettelPay, part of Vietnam's largest mobile carrier Viettel, have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to bring a full suite of online healthcare services to ViettelPay's more than 6 million registered users throughout Vietnam. ViettelPay's customers will be able to directly connect to Doctor Anywhere's virtual clinic and consult a locally registered doctor, as well as access a range of wellness services directly on the ViettelPay App.

ViettelPay was launched in Vietnam in June 2018 and is expected to increase its current number of registered users to 30 million in 2020.

WHY IT MATTERS

In a country of 96 million with a smartphone penetration rate of 84%, anyone with a smartphone can easily download the ViettelPay App and immediately access Doctor Anywhere's services. This will help to ease the strain and improve efficiency of public healthcare in the country, and bring about better quality of care for the Vietnamese population. This service is slated to go live on ViettelPay App in early 2020.

THE LARGER TREND

Doctor Anywhere continues its expansion plan in Vietnam with its latest strategic cooperation with ViettelPay. In September, the startup signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Bao Minh Insurance, one of the largest insurance groups in Vietnam. The agreement will bring a suite of online and offline healthcare services, including doctor video consultation and medication delivery, an online health and wellness shopping marketplace, home-based healthcare services and more, all on one single platform to the people in Vietnam.

In August 2018, China’s online healthcare platform Ping An Good Doctor and Grab, an online-to-offline commerce (O2O) platform in Southeast Asia, announced that they will “establish a joint venture (JV) company to deliver transformative online healthcare services in Southeast Asia.” The JV will utilise GrabPay, Grab's digital wallet, to complete transactions. According to a report by CNBC Indonesia, Grab Indonesia's Executive Director Ongki Kurniawan said the service is slated to launch in Indonesia in the second quarter or early third quarter of 2019.

ON THE RECORD

“This cooperation between ViettelPay and Doctor Anywhere will greatly improve the distribution of reliable healthcare in Vietnam. ViettelPay's users can have direct access to a wide variety of healthcare services anytime, anywhere. All they need is a smartphone connected to the internet,” said Pham Trung Kien, general director of ViettelPay, in a statement.

Lim Wai Mun, founder and CEO of Doctor Anywhere, stated: “We are excited to go forward with this partnership with ViettelPay to bring digital healthcare services to more people in Vietnam. I am confident that with this partnership, we can better achieve our vision of a more robust and sustainable healthcare ecosystem in the country and region.”